The Emigrée

• Title

  The title is an indicative of the poem itself. The contrast between the English 'the' and the French 'Emigrée' immediately establishes the idea idea of two conflicting cultures and identities.
• 'There once was a country... my memory of it is sunlight-clear'


  • Story-like opening establishes a fantastical tone
  • Reference to sunlight suggests the speaker has an idealised, almost dream-like picture of the past, where it is always sunny.
  • The speaker was a child when leaving her country - perhaps the pace the speaker remembers is romanticised by the idealism of youth.
  • Unreliability of the memory is presented through the use of ellipses - creates pause necessary for narrator to gather thoughts & continue.
• 'It cannot break my original view, the bright, filled paperweights'


  • Metaphor
  • Paperweights hold paper down keeping it steady - reflection if how the city gives her stability. It holds her steady & is her core, giving her a sense of self.
  • Paperweight is heavy - the pain of being separated from her homeland weighs heavy on her heart.
  • "BRIGHT" - Speaker's memories are clear, illuminated & positive but also solid & fixed.
• 'I comb its hair and love its shining eyes'


  • City is personified as someone close to the speaker
  • "SHINING" - Links to theme of light running through poem
  • Line suggests the speaker spends a lot of time adoring the city, trying to improve it's appearance. There's a sense in which she lavishes attention on her memory of city.
  • Reader is inclined to see the speaker as emotionally dependant upon the city as recalling the place has become a kind of homesick compulsion.
• 'My city hides behind me. They mutter death, & my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight.'


  • Pronoun "THEY" adds sense of ambiguity.
  • There is an amplified sense of threat as the speaker is attempting to shield the city of any criticism from the outside world.
  • Oxymoron of "SHADOW"+"SUNLIGHT" - Shadow can have haunting connotations - however there is no shadow without sunlight. The shadow serves as a reminder of the sunlight & happiness there one was. Suggests that the speaker will not give up on her memories.
• 'It tastes of sunlight'


  • Metaphor
  • Synaesthesia shows the blur between taste and vision. The jumbling of sense is there in order to show the confusion of memories and emphasise the clearly flawed but joyous nature of the memory.
• Stanza Length

  • Stanza 1 + 2 both have 8 lines
  • However stanza 3 has 9 lines - extra line could reflect her reluctance to let go of her memories as she grieves the loss of the city she once knew.
• Repetition of "THEY"

  • Creates aggressive & accusatory tone - makes new city seem threatening & hostile
  • Rumens draws a contrast between the speaker's positive memories of their former city and negative impressions of the city they live in now.